Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta Launches This Week

For those who bought Halo: The Master Chief Collection to specifically get in some play time with Halo 5: Guardians' multiplayer beta, your anticipation will be fulfilled. Following on the limited preview beta that Microsoft rolled out, the full public beta for those who bought The Master Chief Collection will be able to get in play time with the Halo 5 beta.

Neogaf has a reminder thread about the start of the beta, where they let people know how to get in on the goods.

One user, named DirgeExtinction, pointed out that...

“I don't know if this is new thread worthy, but select Best Buy locations will be allowing gamers ages 17+ to play the Halo 5 Guardians beta on December 29 and January 3 from 3pm - 7pm local time.”

You may have to check with your local Best Buy stores to see if this holds true and if you can play Halo 5: Guardians between December 29th and January 3rd at in-store locations.

For those who need a bit of help getting the Halo 5 beta active, there's another post that describes what's required to get the beta up and running. Basically, you go to the Halo channel app and start watching an episode. You press 'X' to show your rewards and then select the helmet and armor from Nightfall and then click on “Play Halo”. After unlocking the Halo 5 rewards you can then head to the store page to download the beta.

The beta will feature seven playable maps and a couple of modes. Players will will go head-to-head against one another and test out various weapons and skills that have been added to the game.

In all honesty, I haven't seen anything impressive about Halo 5's multiplayer to date. It looks like Halo 4 with the game speed ratcheted up to rival Call of Duty. I suppose if you really like Call of Duty and wanted a Halo skin-job, you'll instantly fall in love with Halo 5. It's hard for me to understand all the excitement when it's just so similar to everything else we've already seen and have been playing. Maybe the fact that it's new is what's getting everyone all hyped up.

Funnily enough, I was actually more excited for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer over Halo 5 just because it introduced the exo-suits, the mechs, a massive weapon customization feature and some other meta-game options to help expand the replay values. Right now, I haven't seen any of Halo 5 that shows that it's taking the steps up from Halo 4 that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare took following Call of Duty: Ghosts.

For those of you who want to see how Halo 5 plays out, you can get a glimpse with the beta footage courtesy of YouTuber LetsPlay. Check it out below.

You can look for the beta for Halo 5: Guardians to get underway on Monday, exclusively for the Xbox One. And yes, it is exclusive.